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BRB Rally dos Sertões

August 23rd-31st, 2024

TOYOTA’S MORAES AND BENTIVOGLIO EARN THIRD VICTORY IN BRAZIL’S RALLY DOS SERTÕES

BRASÍLIA (BRAZIL) – Saturday, August 31:  Toyota’s Lucas Moraes and Kaíque Bentivoglio emerged unscathed from eight demanding legs of Brazil’s BRB Rally dos Sertões to seal a third career victory at the wheel of a Toyota Hilux.

Winners in both 2019 and 2022, the Toyota duo won the Prologue and five of the special stages in a demanding route from Brasília via Formosa, Santa Maria da Vitória, Luís Eduardo Magalhães and back to the country’s capital to secure a winning margin of 16min 06.66sec.

Overdrive Racing staff supplied logistical and service support to several teams but both Lucas and Marcos Moraes ran under the MEM Motorsport banner with Lucas teaming up with Bentivoglio in his Toyota Gazoo Racing DKR Hilux and Marcos being partnered by Fabio Pedroso in another Toyota Hilux.

Adroaldo Weisheimer and Beco Andreotti drove a Toyota GR DKR Hilux under the X Rally Team banner and Glauber Fontoura and Fabricio Bianchini’s Hilux were entered by the FD Rally Team.

Organised by Dunas Race, this year’s Brazilian event began on August 23rd with a Prologue of 11.35km in Brasília before the opening selective section of 236km crossed remote countryside between the country’s capital and Formosa in the state of Goiás on August 24th.

Lucas and Marcos Moraes made the perfect start and claimed a 1-2 finish on the Prologue with Lucas winning the test by 4.67 seconds. But the sudden collapse of a bridge at the 86.45km point of the opening stage forced race officials to cancel the day’s action and guide crews to Formosa on a non-competitive liaison section.

From Formosa, the route headed to Santa Maria da Vitória on August 25th and on to Luís Eduardo Magalhães in the state of Bahia in the northeast of the country.

The second stage ran for 257km and Lucas Moraes moved into a 1min 12.37sec advantage over Weisheimer, as Toyotas filled the top two positions. Defending champion Marcelo Gastaldi came home in third place in his Century CR7 Buggy and Marcos Moraes was a close fourth.

Lucas Moraes said: “We ended up with the entire car, which was the important thing. I made a couple of mistakes when I expected to see the tracks of the UTVs but dealing with overtaking the motorcycles was much easier, as there was enough space. We are off to a good start in our strategy. One day at a time.”

Stage three utilised 336km of demanding terrain and Weisheimer hit the front with the fastest time in a little under six hours. That put the Brazilian 1min 20.13sec ahead of stage runner-up Lucas Moraes. Gastaldi, Marcos Moraes and Carlos Ambrosio filled the remaining positions in the top five on the stage with Marcos Moraes retaining third overall.

The fourth and fifth stages looped through remote terrain in the state of Bahia before competitors returned to Luís Eduardo Magalhães. Lucas Moraes regained the outright lead from Gastaldi with the quickest time on the 263km fourth stage, as Marcos Moraes came home in third to remain on the final step of the podium. Weisheimer crashed his Toyota out of contention.

Lucas Moraes said: “It was a great day for us, we did a clean special, we set a good pace at the beginning and we were touching Adroaldo. We saw their accident, we stopped to provide assistance and it’s a shame what happened. We didn’t have the references of the other vehicles, but Kaíque is very in tune in navigation and the road book was very well done. The car is perfect for tomorrow, I believe it will be a very important stage to define the rally.”

Stage five was part of the event’s Marathon stage and looped through a challenging remote area around Luís Eduardo Magalhães for 418km. Lucas Moraes was again fastest with a time of just over five hours. That enabled the Toyota Hilux driver to extend his overall advantage over Gastaldi with Marcos Moraes retaining third place.

Stage six headed back towards Formosa and including a shorter, but no less demanding, competitive section of 218km. Gastaldi claimed the stage win and trimmed Lucas Moraes’s overall advantage to 13min 14.4sec. Marcos and Lucas Moraes came home in second and third on the day’s special.

“We completed the Marathon without any problems, which was our goal,” said Lucas Moraes. “Stage six was very interesting with sand, gravel and faster sections. As we had mechanical support at the end of the day, we pushed the pace a little more to open up an advantage in the general classification and it worked. We took another step in our strategy.”

The penultimate stage seven looped around Formosa for 349km and Lucas Moraes started the day behind Gastaldi and was able to claim his fifth stage win of the campaign to extend his advantage to 15min 41sec.

Bentifoglia said: “Sertões defined the champions several times on the last day. We were third to start this stage and we managed to monitor Gastaldi and opened two more minutes’ lead. The special was quite fast with a lot of navigational work.”

The eighth and final stage of 133km took crews back to the finish in Brasília. Lucas Moraes delivered another measured drive to secure the stage win and a tremendous victory in Brazil’s leading off-road rally. Marcos Moraes finished third on the day and rounded off the podium places behind Gastaldi.

Rally dos Sertões – result after SS8 (unofficial @ 12.00hrs):

  1. Lucas Moraes (BRA)/Kaíque Bentivoglio (BRA) Toyota GR DKR Hilux 24hr 21min 50.30sec
  2. Marcelo Gastaldi (BRA)/Cadu Sachs (BRA) Century CR7 Buggy 24hr 37min 56.96sec
  3. Marcos Moraes (BRA)/Fabio Pedrosa (BRA) Toyota GR DKR Hilux 24hr 51min 44.43sec
  4. Carlos Ambrosio (BRA)/Luiz Afonso Poli (BRA) Century CR6 Buggy 25hr 18min 29.67sec
  5. Luiz Nacif (BRA)/Erick Rocha (BRA) Ford Ranger 25hr 52min 58.64sec
  6. Alex Buchheim (BRA)/Miguel Falcao (BRA) Buggy Giaffone V8 26hr 00min 07.72sec
  7. Jose Silmar (BRA)/Alyson Antunes (BRA) Ford Ranger 26hr 07min 56.65sec
  8. Flavio Lunardi (BRA)/Fred Budtikevitz (BRA) Ford Ranger 26hr 18min 35.16sec
  9. Pedro Prado (BRA)/Joesane Koerich (BRA) Ford Ranger 26hr 31min 37.38sec
  10. Lelio Carneiro (BRA)/Weberth Moreira (BRA) Can-Am Maverick R 26hr 40min 53.31sec, etc

Ends

For further information:

Jean-Marc Fortin (E-mail: jmf@overdriveracing.be), Overdrive S.A., rue de L’Enterprise 1, 4530 Villers-le-Bouillet, Belgium, Tel: + 32 475 762 391. www.overdriveracing.be, Facebook: Overdrive Racing, Twitter: @OverdriveToyota

 

 

Published On: 31 August 2024